04.01.11
Drinking too much
Ever more astounding statistics on the multi-billion pound cost to the NHS from alcohol abuse have prompted fresh calls for drunk people to pay for their own treatment.
It is unlikely to take off any time soon, but the public health and patients’ groups making such suggestions, however well-intentioned, should think a bit harder about the enormous implications.
Their frustration with drunkards whose injuries are entirely self-inflicted is understandable, but it implies that anybody undertaking risky activities or with risky lifestyles should pay more for NHS care on top of the taxes they pay already, through general taxation and National Insurance as well as duty on the booze.
The difficulties in deciding who should pay would be enormous, with many administrative and legal pitfalls, on top of the undermining of one of the NHS’s founding principles. The entire alcohol industry should pay for the damage it does to our nation’s health – charging individual unfortunates at A&E is a non-starter.
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